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By Llanesca T. Panti, Reporter
Filipino seamen are again in
trouble because of pirates in Africa, the Department of Foreign
Affairs reported Wednesday.
Somali pirates attacked
Somalia’s coast along the Gulf of Aden on July 20, seizing 20 of
21 Filipino crew aboard the freighter Stella Maris, according to
officials in Kenya and the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy
Reporting Center in Malaysia.
The Stella Maris is a
Japanese-owned vessel but flies under a Panamanian flag of
convenience. The vessel was reportedly carrying lead and zinc.
Ship owners MMS Co. Ltd. of Tokyo
have reestablished contact with the victims on Wednesday and have
told officials that the crew have not been harmed.
The Department of Foreign Affairs
has alerted officials at the Philippine Embassy in Nairobi and in
Tokyo, and they are helping on a rescue plan.
“We have coordinated with ship
owners and internal maritime authorities to secure the speedy and
safe release of our Filipino seamen,” Foreign Affairs spokesman
Claro Cristobal said.
There were no reports of any
ransom demanded by the pirates from the Filipino hostages, but
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs
Esteban Conejos, Jr. said the Philippine government will not give or
even consider paying ransom.
Africa had been a troublesome
place for Filipinos recently.
Last week, Nigerian authorities
arrested 15 Filipinos suspected of stealing crude oil. The Filipinos
denied the charges but were arraigned Tuesday.
They were arrested while aboard
MT Lina Panama, which is laden with stolen crude at Brass. Rev
Chavez, the ship’s captain, was quoted as arguing that they
don’t know about the stolen crude, and they were just victims of
an attack orchestrated by suspected pirates in Nigeria.
The independent newspaper The
Nation, which showed a picture of the Filipinos in its Friday
edition, quoted Chavez as saying they were on their way to Angola
from Cotonou, the capital of Benin, when they were attacked.
The ship captain added that they
were locked in a cabin for several hours before they were rescued by
Nigerian security troops.
Theft of crude oil from the Niger
Delta by armed gangs and pirates and their foreign collaborators
costs Lagos millions of dollars in lost revenue every year.
Nigeria is one of the world’s
top oil producers and trouble there impacts on global prices of oil.
In 2006 and 2007, a rise in
illegal activities was observed in Africa, with frequent attacks on
foreign oil concerns and a rash of abductions of expatriate staff.
In May, five Filipino seamen were
also held hostage by pirates who hijacked the MV Amiya Scan also at
the Gulf of Aden. Fortunately, the ship and the passengers were
released 30 days later.
The International Maritime Bureau
reported that more than 25 ships were seized off Somalia’s
3,700-kilometer coastline in 2007 despite patrols by an
international force based in Djibouti.
--with AFP
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